Blog

God Puts Us Where He Wants Us

As an RN, I round for a brilliant gastroenterolist one weekend per month. It’s amazing how many times I know why God put me there in that hospital on that day. Perhaps He put me there for one person—perhaps for more. But as I drive home, my heart is so full of gratitude when I know He’s used me to make a difference in other peoples’ lives.

After all, don’t we all pray that God would use us as a vessel? Don’t we want Him to use us to bless others?

But I didn’t want to work this weekend. Last Tuesday I injured my knee playing tennis and hobbled on it painfully for days. I tried to get someone else to cover this weekend. Everyone was busy. So God blessed me by a) healing my knee well enough for me to work on it, and b) using me to make a difference in one family’s life.

Back when I was an on-call nurse for hospice I sometimes resented my pager going off—especially if I had to leave church to respond to a call. Sometimes I fumed all the way to the patient’s house.

But something happened once I actually got there. I’d walk in to see pain and distress, the situation in chaos. And, because of my training and experience, I was in a position to bring them comfort. I knew what to do. When I left that house, I realized that I’m the one who received the blessing that day. No, I didn’t get to finish the worship service, but I did something else. I tended His flock.

You simply can’t out-give God. Even on the occasions when my utmost desire is to serve others, He finds a way to bless me by the experience, to leave me breathless with gratitude. It’s thrilling when God uses you to help someone else.

So this weekend, an elderly patient got some very bad news. Terminal cancer that had already spread. He and his family were still coming to grips with it. I was there to help at a moment when they needed just that! I won’t share the details but suffice it to say there was some rejoicing in God’s sovereignty. This man knew he wouldn’t die a moment before he was supposed to and told me he was ready any time the Lord called him home. They tearfully thanked me for my visit. I don’t know if they noticed the tears in my eyes, as well. No, I didn’t know them, but it’s amazing how we, as believers, are part of the same family in times like these.

My knee was really angry about me working this weekend. But I told it to stop its whining. I knew why I was supposed to be there. And that was far more important.

God put me where He wanted me. That’s enough for me.

1 Comments

Thanks, Deborah, for this post. Do we really believe that God directs our pathways in His sovereign will and in His inscrutable wisdom? We say we do, but how easily we find that we mistrust His guidance and end up seeking to reinforce our own comfort zones!